Aethelswith of Mercia

Aethelswith of Mercia (838-888) was the Queen of Mercia from 853 to 874 with King Burghred of Mercia.

Biography
Aethelswith was born in 838 to King Aethelwulf of Wessex, and was an Anglo-Saxon Christian of the House of Wessex. In 853 she married Burghred of Mercia, and she became the Queen of Mercia through their marriage. At a time when both Wessex and Mercia were suffering from raids by Vikings, the marriage subordinated her husband to her father, and in the same year as her marriage to her husband, she was sent to subjugate Powys for her husband. In 868, Burghred called on her brother Aethelred of Wessex to assist him in fighting an entrenched Danish army at Nottingham, the last time that the West Saxons would come to the aid of the Mercians. In 874, her husband was forced to flee to Rome after Halfdan Whiteshirt of Jorvik deposed him, and Aethelswith was widowed after his death. She died in 888, and was buried in Pavia, Italy.